Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, meaning it’s the time of year to show that special someone just how much they mean to you. Some romantics choose to buy flowers and chocolate, purchase jewelry or go out to a fancy restaurant — but no matter what, you’re expected to come up with a way to show how much you care about your significant other.

Sometimes the best way to get that across is to put effort into your gift. That’s why these sweet treats are perfect if you want to give someone something from the heart.

When making any food for Valentine’s Day you have to remember the essentials: it has to have chocolate or be red — it’s a plus if you have both.

Chocolate-covered strawberries

The first treat I tried to make were chocolate-covered strawberries. This Valentine’s power-combo will make an impact on anyone with a sweet tooth. My recipe is to take a fistful of semi-sweet chocolate chips, put them in a bowl and microwave until the chocolate bits become soupy.

Grab the strawberries by the stem and dunk them in, holding them over the bowl to get all the excess chocolate off. Then, place them on a cookie sheet and into the fridge until the chocolate is solid.

Getting the chocolate strawberries off the sheet was a pain, but I later found out that sliding the chocolate berries about an inch on the cookie sheet makes them easier to peel off.

Chocolate spoons

With the leftover chocolate, I decided to make chocolate spoons. This sounds weird, but in fact, they’re a nice way to spice up a mug of hot chocolate. Or you can eat the chocolate off them by themselves, if you’re into that.

These are simple — all you need to do is take the plastic spoon and dip it into the chocolate. The next step is optional, but I like to crush up some peanuts and roll the spoons in it. Then leave them in the fridge until they harden, but make sure to slide them on the sheet a bit so that they’re removable. If I had known about that neat trick at the time, I wouldn’t have broken most of the spoons trying to get them off the sheet.

Strawberry Jell-O cup

Personally, my favorite treat was the strawberry Jell-O cup. I’m a big fan of whipped cream, especially with strawberries, and this treat was easy to make.

All you need to do is to follow the directions on the box to make the Jell-O — but when you’re leaving it in the fridge to chill, tilt the dish the Jell-O is in. I used a bowl to keep my cup inclined and to catch any excess gelatin.

Halfway through, when the Jell-O is slightly solid, you can stick some fruit in it. I went with strawberries, but you can do whatever you or your significant other prefer.

Once you’re done dropping the strawberries in the Jell-O, wait until it fully solidifies and then spray whipped cream to fill in the open space that was made by the tilt.

These treats are simple and cheap to make, but I think the best part is that it gets your feelings across to your sweetheart and lets you enjoy a treat in each other’s company.

Published on February 14, 2018 at 12:37 am